AtDtDA(28): A Small Exploring Party

[Dave Monroe]

On 3/22/08, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Opening of the Commedia (Inferno I), not La Vita Nuova -- but yes, no
> question at all that P has Dante in mind here (as he did earlier with all
> the hellish language when Kit was belowdecks on the battleship)..
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Mark Kohut
> Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 11:46 AM
> To: Dave Monroe; pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: AtDtDA(28): A Small Exploring Party
>
> Still thinking on why Kit has no doubt
>
> BUT your focussing here leads me to think TRP may be alluding to the opening
> of Dante's Vita Nuova---lost in a dark wood at mid-life fulll of doubt and
> uncertainty......
>
> which Kit IS NOT..........................
>
> Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "Kit proceeded through the dark forests as if there was no doubt as to
> his way...." (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 789)
>
> "as if there was no doubt as to his way" ...

	When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.

	Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was,
that savage forest, dense and difficult,
which even in recall renews my fear: ...

http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/new/comedy/index.html

Thanks!